The Exploit: A Theory of Networks - asounder

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in terms of probability and thinking in terms of possibility. Informatic
spaces do not bow to political pressure or influence, as social spaces
do. But informatic spaces do have bugs and holes, a by - product of
high levels of technical complexity, which make them as vulnerable
to penetration and change as would a social actor at the hands of
more traditional political agitation.
Let us reiterate that we are referring only to protocological resistance
and in no way whatsoever suggest that non - protocological practice
should abandon successful techniques for effecting change such
as organizing, striking, speaking out, or demonstrating. What we suggest
here is a supplement to existing practice, not a replacement for it.
The goal for political resistance in life networks, then, should be the discovery
of exploits—or rather, the reverse heuristic is better: look for traces
of exploits, and you will find political practices.
Let’s flesh out this idea using examples from actual practice, from
specific scenarios. The first is an instance of the protocological masquerading
as biological: the computer virus. Deleuze mentions computer
viruses in his 1990 interview with Negri:
It’s true that, even before control societies are fully in place, forms of
delinquency or resistance (two different things) are also appearing.
Computer piracy and viruses, for example, will replace strikes and what
the nineteenth century called “sabotage” (“clogging” the machinery). 60
Computer viruses have a spotted history; they often involve innovative
programming techniques that have been used in other areas of
computer science, but they are also often tagged as being part of delinquent
or criminal activities. Should computer viruses be included in
the “history” of computers? How much have viruses and antivirus
programs contributed to the development of “official” computer science
and programming? The majority of the early instances of computer
viruses have ties to either the university or the corporation: the
“Darwin” game (AT&T/ Bell Labs, early 1960s), “Cookie Monster”
(MIT, mid - 1960s), “Creeper” and “Reaper” (BBN, early 1970s), “tapeworm”
(XeroxPARC, early 1970s), and so on. 61 Like early hacking
activities, their intent was mostly exploratory. Unlike hacking, how-